Dead means…..dead

The reality of most video games, according to Wired magazine, is that death isn’t real. It isn’t permanent. There’s always a reboot, a starting over button, a reset. But not with the newest video game on PC called Upsilon Circuit. In this game, when your player dies, they really die. No starting over, no reboot. You’re out. Dead means…..dead. It’s a novel concept for video players, who are used to taking risks with their character in the games with the realization that, while death sets you back or slows you down, it isn’t permanent. Inconvenient, but not permanent.

I wonder how much of that thought translates into real life for us? How many of us really think about death as “inconvenient, but not permanent.” Those who hold to the theory of reincarnation certainly see that there’s a “reboot” after we die. There are those who believe we will simply assume some other life form, or “reboot” onto life on another planet. So we’ve really stopped taking death seriously. After all, it’s not permanent…is it? Maybe we’ll just come back as a zombie!

According to the Bible “it is appointed unto man once to die, and then judgement comes.” In other words, no one meets you in a bright light on the other side and asks you if you want to “reboot” and play again, or come on into the light. We do not experience the surprise of waking up as another person or another living creature to live life over… hopefully better… this time. We just die, and then judgement comes.

For the unrighteous, that’s really bad news. Death is permanent. It isn’t just an inconvenience. It is eternal.

For the righteous, death is a passage to life everlasting. For those who have been made right through faith in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God…those who have received the Gospel of Life… life is waiting eternally.

It’s a simple choice really… life or death. And it hinges on the answer to one simple question: